Crash Into Me
by LiveLaughGlee
Summary: "She grabbed the chair's cushion and squeezed as the plane dipped again, and the cabin rattled around her. As her eyes were closed, she didn't notice the oxygen masks that were falling around her. The only thing she could notice were the gasps and helpless screams that were emitted from the mouths of the people around her."
1. Helpless

Marley was uncomfortable. Not only was she being forced to sit in an economy class seat in a flying death trap, she was also unfortunate enough to be sitting next to none other than Ryder Lynn, her boyfriend's, maybe ex-boyfriends, ex best friend. To say she wasn't thrilled with the idea would be an understatement. This wasn't due to the fact that the boy had kissed her without warning a couple of days after Valentine's Day. No, that would make it too easy. Regardless of how it felt to see Jake so upset, she couldn't get the feeling of Ryder's lips against hers out of her head.

Marley wasn't the only one feeling extremely uncomfortable. It seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a suitable position to sit in. The window was cold and he didn't want to lean up against it but at the same time, he couldn't exactly lean closer to the girl occupying the seat next to him. He didn't complain, though, because in a way he deserved it. He didn't like the fact that he couldn't talk to either of his two best friends without either feeling incredibly awkward or risking a punch to the face, but regardless of how he felt, he knew it was karma's way of repaying him for his betrayal. It was out of line and he should have known better.

Jake was sitting one seat behind them but across the aisle with his headphones in and his eyes locked on the back of Marley's head. Her hair was shining in just the perfect way and there was no part of him that didn't want to reach out and run his hand through it, forgiving her for everything she had admitted. But that would be too easy and he'd always taken the easy way out. This time around, he was going to do what was right. He would let her breathe and then allow her to decide who she wanted to be with. But it would kill him to see them walking down the hall hand in hand, which made seeing them act so awkward around each other almost delighting.

"How long is this flight going to last?" Kitty asked tiredly, upset that the only people who turned to give her the attention she desired were Marley and Jake. She was sitting across the aisle from Jake and directly behind Marley but she expected everyone in the cabin to turn towards her. "I'm bored already."

The plane shook but that was expected given the fact that it was up in the air and the captain had warned them about turbulence before the plane even took off, but Marley still gripped the seat tightly as she turned back around to face forward. Jake rolled his eyes at her behavior before trying to calculate the time remaining in their trip to Spain. "I think seven hours."

"Actually, there are six." Ryder mumbled without glancing away from the window. He knew if he did the three of them would be staring at him as if he were an idiot for opening his mouth in the first place. So instead of having to deal with their hatred of him, he focused on the overwhelming desire he had to reach out of the window and touch a cloud.

Kitty's groan cut through the overwhelmingly awkward silence like a knife and nobody could refrain from rolling their eyes. It was the one thing the three of them had in common with each other: Kitty annoyed them. Jake almost chuckled and cracked a joke with Ryder but that was unacceptable. Ryder isn't his friend; perhaps he never really was.

Marley took a deep breath and released her grip from the arm rest, risking a glance over at Ryder who seemed content looking out the window for the duration of the flight. She wouldn't say it, but when he had asked if she wanted to switch seats with him earlier, she had wanted to say yes more than anything. But instead, she chose to turn her head to the side in defiance, an act she had never shown him before, and ignore his attempt to make her feel better.

Almost as if reading her mind, he mumbled, "We can still switch seats, you know." He had meant it to come out nicely, but all either of them could hear was the attitude behind his words. Maybe he was pissed at her, he wasn't entirely sure, but he knew he had the right to be. He apologized directly after the kiss and he couldn't fathom why she was still ignoring him. It wasn't like she wasn't leading him on so he wasn't the only one to blame in this situation.

"I don't want to switch seats with you." She grumbled, matching the tone he had used. To be honest, she wasn't entirely mad at him. The majority of her anger can be blamed on herself. She knew that she had been leading him on, leading both boys on, but at the time she didn't care. Her self-esteem was at an all-time high knowing that two of the most popular guys in school were showing interest in her. Now every time she looked at him and every time he was nice to her, all she felt was guilt.

Regardless of her attitude, he turned towards her with his eyebrows scrunched. "Why are you so pissed at me anyway, Marley?"

"You kissed me." She mumbled, crossing her arms as she refused to look at him. She didn't need to see his innocent face staring at her like she was the next Virgin Mary.

Still, he continued to look at her, except for the short period of time it took for him to roll his eyes. "I apologized for that literally two seconds after _I_ pulled away."

Now that she thought about it, maybe that's why she was so mad. He kissed her and didn't even give her enough time to be the first one to stop him from doing so. Or maybe it was just because of the fact that his lips weren't connected with hers for an acceptable amount of time. Keeping her eyes ahead of her, she bit her lip before mumbling, "Jake found out and broke up with me."

Jake sat forward in his seat slightly upon hearing his name. He wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about, but as long as it was about him, it was intriguing. He frowned when Ryder answered whatever Marley had just said by saying, "Jake found out because _you_ told him about it even though we both established it meant nothing. If we're going to be honest, I should be mad at you."

"And what exactly did I do to you?" She challenged, no longer content with the idea of not looking at him. When she turned to face him quickly, she saw him smirking slightly which pissed her off more than anything. "Might I remind you that you were the one who kissed _me?" _

He shrugged his shoulders and reached down in his lap to unbuckle his seat belt. "I might have initiated the kiss but I was also the one who decided to stop it." He stretched his legs under the seat in front of him, annoying the occupant inside of it, before standing up. "I have to go to the bathroom. You can have the window seat."

She sighed and moved her legs to the side so he could squeeze passed her with ease, his scent filling her nostrils almost intoxicating her. As she bit her lip while contemplating her options, she felt the plane dip slightly, nothing too serious she presumed, but still she couldn't help but wish that Ryder had never left. The closest thing to him right now was the smell he left on his seat, so she unbuckled herself and slid into his, where his sweatshirt was draped over the back.

Jake scoffed and just as she was about to turn around to see what could possibly be bothering him, when the plane dipped again, this time more forcefully. She grabbed the chair's cushion and squeezed as the plane dipped again, and the cabin rattled around her. As her eyes were closed, she didn't notice the oxygen masks that were falling around her. The only thing she could notice was the gasps and helpless screams that were emitted from the mouths of the people around her.

Someone forced a mask over her face and as she opened her eyes, she saw Ryder and Jake standing over her, both looking at each other with worried expressions. It seemed that neither of them cared that they were in an argument, and that bothered Marley more than she thought it would. Wasn't she worth being fought over?

"W-what's happening?" She breathed out, standing when the flight attendants ordered everyone in the cabin to walk towards the front of the plane.

Ryder shrugged as he pushed both of them towards where the flight attendants were waving them over, but Jake stopped moving almost as fast as he began. With the speed they were going, Ryder bumped into him and almost knocked them both over. "What the hell man? Go."

"Puck's back there." Jake mumbled, turning around and looking past Ryder towards the cabin behind them. Ryder licked his lips and turned too; seeing the same thing happening that was happening in the cabin they were in. People were exiting.

"He's evacuating too." Ryder urged, turning back towards his friend. Marley turned around to see the two standing in the middle of the aisle. They were not fighting now. They couldn't be fighting now. She started walking back towards them, pushing them both slightly when she reached them. "Marley, go."

"What are you two doing!?" She screamed, as she looked around self-consciously. Nobody was paying any attention to the three of them though besides Unique who was waiting up at the emergency exit for her friend to join her again. "Let's _go!"_

Ryder looked at her briefly before glancing back at Jake who seemed determined to go in the direction his brother could be. Sighing, he turned back towards Marley and motioned for her to go to Unique. "We're going to go and make sure the other Glee guys are alright. We'll meet you out there."

"We?" Jake asked, slightly surprised with Ryder's willingness to get in the middle of his drama. Ryder nodded his head and turned back towards Marley. "Go."

She watched helplessly as the two boys retreated to the back of the cabin before disappearing behind the light blue curtain that separated the two cabins. It only took two seconds before Unique grabbed her shoulders and turned her around in order to drag her towards the emergency exit. The plane was falling quickly. Marley's eyes watered as she left the cabin behind and jumped onto the blowup slide that was connected to the plane, her life vest keeping her afloat as she hit the water. It was then and only then did she realize that she had been holding Ryder's sweatshirt the entire time.

As she treaded water with Unique by her side, she watched as the plane crashed into the water a couple miles away, flames bursting into the air and illuminating the night sky. The thought of them still being on board made her want to throw up so she squeezed the sweatshirt and shut her eyes, trying her best to ignore the screams of the other passengers who were looking for their loved ones.

"Jake!" She screamed through the night, joining the chorus of screams. "Jake!" Turning as she was sent into a panic she continued to scream, the waves splashing into her mouth making it harder to breathe. "Ryder!"

"Come on, Marls." Unique said softly, grabbing onto the girl's life vest. "There's a life boat over there."

"But Jake… and Ryder." Marley whimpered in protest even though she wasn't actively fighting as Unique dragged her towards boat. "They're out there, Unique. We have to help them."

"Unique has to help herself right now." The girl murmured, coughing as salt water filled her throat. "And she has to help you."

Before she knew it, Marley was being pulled into a blow up raft that was occupied by several of the other passengers, one of them being Puck. Quickly she crawled over to him and practically sat in his lap. "Woah, I'm already dating one of my brother's sophomore ex-girlfriends. I don't need to add you to the list."

Marley shook her head and licked her salty lips before sighing. Her hair was clinging to her face and sand was sticking to her skin in an uncomfortable manner but she couldn't pay attention to that now. There were much more important things that were going on. "Where's Jake?"

"What do you mean where's Jake?" Puck questioned, raising his eyebrows. "You were the one in his cabin. I haven't seen him since takeoff."

"He went to look for you!" Marley whimpered, turning her head towards the fire that was burning a couple miles away. Again, the thought of them burning made her stomach churn in the worst way and despite the fact that it was wet and freezing cold, she slipped her arms into Ryder's red sweatshirt and shivered by herself in the middle of the raft.

Her world had just been turned upside down and there was nothing she could do to change it. In short, she was helpless.

**So here is the rewritten intro of Crash into Me. Considering I've posted a couple of chapters of it before, I've decided to change some things up. Different characters will be alive and different ones will be dead. I'm not sure who is dead yet. I guess I'll go figure that out. Please review! It makes my day. :)**


	2. Empathy

It seemed to take hours, maybe even an entire day, before they found land of any sort. Marley hat sat with Ryder's sweatshirt wrapped around her the entire time, refusing to say anything to anyone. She had been right there when the two decided to do something stupid and she failed to get them to reconsider. It was her fault they had been in the plane when it went down. Her fault. No one else's.

"Hey look!" Someone called but Marley remained still, too frozen within her own mind to try to see the tiny island that the people were so excited about. As far as she was concerned, her life had been lost when that plane went down with her boyfriend and her best friend still inside of it, both of which she refused to talk to for two weeks.

She did, however take the time to glance down at the sleeves of the sweatshirt. It was no longer wet but it also didn't smell like Ryder anymore. That fact alone made her want to take it off and throw it into the water but she refrained. Her hair was now dry, as was everyone else's, but the smell of salt lingered on it.

She was so mean to both of the boys and now she couldn't even say sorry. Ryder didn't deserve to be ignored and Jake clearly deserved a better girlfriend than she could offer. It wasn't fair to either of them but what frustrated her was that through everything she put them through; they were still here for her, helping her off the plane.

She shouldn't have been alive right now and appeared to be the only one around her that realized that. Unique tried to engage her in a conversation a couple of times, but the effort failed as the brunette remained adamant.

As the boat hit land, it was no surprise that Marley was the last out. She wouldn't have left it at all had it not been for Unique and Puck's efforts of dragging her onto the sand. "Damn, no wonder this girl is starving herself." Puck muttered as he shuffled his weight to better hold onto Marley so she wouldn't fall.

Unique stopped walking upon hearing his words and stared at him incredulously. "Unique doesn't like your attitude."

Puck looked at her before looking around confused. "And who the hell is Unique?"

"I am."

Puck scrunched his eyebrows before licking his lips. "Well Puck was just saying…?" He continued talking after this and she decided not to say anything. It'd be better to let the infamous Puckerman believe what he wanted to believe and as long as Marley wasn't paying attention to what he had to say, then Unique didn't see a problem with his negative attitude.

Marley was paying attention, though, but it appeared as if she was numb. She knew his words should have hurt her and she supposed that they would have if she wasn't already completely broken on the inside. The pain in her heart was too strong to tear her focus away from it and focus on his ignorant comments. Besides, it was Puck and if there was anything she had learned from her mentor, it was that she shouldn't take what he had to say to heart.

"Marley, baby…" Unique tried once the two of them had set her down against a tree at the edge of the forest. Probably not the smartest idea since Marley now had a clear view of the smoke way off in the distance. She couldn't prove it but she was pretty sure it was pieces of the plane that were still being smoking. "You have to talk to me, okay?"

"They're gone…" She whispered in response, moving her head slightly as Unique tried to block her view of the ocean. Unique sighed and looked up at Puck who was shaking his head. "It's my fault."

Unique stood up and turned towards Puck. "You should go help whoever needs it. Boats are coming onto shore. There are bound to be people that are injured."

"Why do I have to?" Puck groaned as his licked his lips tiredly.

Unique again looked at him incredulously, something she felt she'd be doing a lot. "Because one of them could be your brother and his best friend."

"_Ex_ best friend." Marley reminded them both, looking up at them, a blank expression on her face. "My fault."

"_Jake's_ fault." Unique muttered distastefully. She had never really known either of the two boys but she felt that Ryder was a better guy and in spite of all the drama that unfolded these past weeks, he seemed to be the one in for the long run.

Puck scoffed and shook his head. "_Ryder's_ fault."

Unique looked over at him about to argue with him when they all heard screaming coming from the shoreline. Shaking away her angry thoughts, she pushed him towards the water so he could help whoever he could. Reluctantly, she did as he was told.

Turning back towards her friend who was staring blankly at the water, she sat down next to her and patted her back. "Marls, this isn't your fault."

"I didn't stop them." She whispered, shaking her head as tears clouded her vision. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was in fact _her_ fault. At first she was just saying it because she enjoyed torturing herself when things got tough, but now as she sat there staring off into the distance, she knew it was truly the reason Ryder and Jake may be dead. "I should have stopped them."

"You couldn't have stopped them if you tried." Unique murmured, rubbing her friend's hair as if she was her own daughter. "They're superheros, or at least they'd like to think they are. The two Megastuds, fighting crime together one plane crash at a time."

Even though it truly wasn't funny, at least not to Marley, she laughed anyway, allowing the brief laughter to rip her insides. She didn't deserve to be happy. With only the pain, she allowed herself to break down completely. Her tears running down her face like waterfalls and the only thing Unique could do was pull her friend into her side and rub her back. But that's the last thing Marley wanted. Unique didn't seem to understand that Marley didn't deserve to be comforted. Ryder and Jake did. The rest of the passengers on the plane did but certainly not Marley.

Puck walked along the water's edge watching other guys pull people out of the water, going out of their way to help people they didn't even know. He couldn't understand why but he didn't dwell too much on that when he saw a familiar person practically fall out of one of the boats. Rushing over he pulled the boy out of the water and patted his back as the boy started coughing.

"You alright man?" Puck asked, looking at the boy's forehead which was bleeding pretty badly. Taking his own shirt off, Puck applied pressure to the wound and helped the boy sit down. "Come on, talk to me."

"Ryder…" Jake muttered, lashing his arms to get Puck to stop holding him down. "He's still… he was still…" He couldn't say much, the exhaustion getting the best of him.

Puck looked around, unsure of what to do. He may have gone to some of his classes, but he hadn't been prepared for this and now he was regretting skipping his emergency care classes. "Just stay awake, ok?" He urged, remembering hearing something like that said on one of the Grey's Anatomy episodes his mom had made him watch.

"You have to…" Jake started before he erupted in a coughing fit. Puck tried his best to help his brother but there wasn't anything he could do seeing as he wasn't sure _what _to do. "Help… Ryder is still…" Jake kept trying but his thoughts weren't being formed into proper words and before he could stop it, he was overcome by darkness.

He knew it was best not to, but Puck panicked anyway, calling over anyone who would listen. Suddenly, he was being pushed away from his brother by a couple of guys who were apparently in a medical field of some sort. They assured him the boy would be fine, but that he should go and help more people. He decided to just walk back to where Unique and his brother's girlfriend were sitting, hoping that she had finally sucked it up and gotten her shit together.

"I found Jake." He mumbled as he approached them. Marley shot up, suddenly too excited to sit motionless anymore. The idea of Jake being alive was satisfying and where there was Jake, there was Ryder. "Woah, calm down. He's fine."

"Then why isn't he here?" She tested. Her attitude was pissing him off to say the least but still, he kept his composure because she was asking all the same questions he would have had the rolls been reversed.

"There are a couple of doctors down the beach who are trying to help him." Puck explained slowly, allowing the words to sink into his own head. For the first time, he seemed to process everything that had happened. They were in a plane crash. They may not survive. People were dying. His brother could be one of them.

"Why? What happened?" Marley spit out, still being held back by Puck despite her efforts to run down the beach and find her boyfriend. All of the drama left her mind and the only thing she wanted was to run to all of her friends, including Jake and Ryder, and give them giant hugs. "Is he ok?"

He was losing his patience and quite frankly he didn't appreciate what she was making him think about. He was perfectly content with denying what had happened and playing it off as if it was no big deal but she seemed determined to make it so that was no longer possible. "He will be if you just let the doctors work, alright?"

She huffed and pushed the hair off of her forehead and out of the way. Giving up, she took a step back towards the tree she had just been leaning against. "Fine." She breathed out, allowing an almost nice satisfaction to course through her veins. Jake was alright. They had gotten out of the plane. "Where's Ryder?"

Puck shut his eyes and scratched the back of his neck. Truthfully, he was hoping she wouldn't ask that and he wouldn't have to think about how desperate his brother seemed when talking about Ryder. It was as if that boy was the only person any of them could think about. Seemingly, it was alright for Ryder to kiss his best friend's girlfriend but when Puck had done the same to Finn, all hell broke loose. Given, Puck had gone one step farther than kissing Quinn, but still. It hardly seemed fair.

"Puck!" Marley urged, Puck losing his train of thought. "Where's Ryder?"

"I don't know…" Puck whispered, waiting for Marley to start to try to run in some direction. To his surprise, she just stood there and bit her lip. "Jake kept saying he was hurt though but I couldn't see him on the way back here."

Marley had heard enough. Ryder's smell was no longer lingering on the sweatshirt and now it never would again. Because of Marley. Because she couldn't get him to come with her. Because she had let him kiss her and then told Jake. Because she was a terrible person and an even worse friend.

Without much of a warning, she fell to the ground and started to sob, not because of what she had lost but of what she would never find again. She wasn't sure of it at the time but now she knew that Ryder and Jake were both special. She needed the both of them and unfortunately she didn't realize when she should have. Instead, she chose to be angry at the both of them for actions that she had initiated, that she had caused.

And even though she didn't mean it to come across that way, Puck couldn't help but notice the different attitudes she had when confronted with both boys' fates. With Jake, she was sincere, upset with the fact that he was hurt. Clearly, she was distraught and broken hearted upon hearing he was gone. However, when she was told about Ryder her entire world seemed to crash down upon itself.

And even though Jake was his brother, he recognized the feeling she seemed to have for that Ryder kid because he had had the same for Quinn. Neither of them was trying to hurt anyone, but their hearts wanted what they wanted. And as he watched her break down in Unique's arms, he couldn't help but feel empathetic.

**Thank you so much to everyone who read/reviewed/favorited/followed this story so far. You guys are amazing and I love you so much. Honestly, I do. **

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. **

**Love, Kaylee**

**Tumblr: **bemyryder

**Twitter: **bemyryder


	3. Betrayal

When Marley woke up the next morning after falling asleep crying, she felt empty. Puck was sleeping close by and so was Unique but other than them, she was alone. She didn't know anyone else on the island, besides Jake, but she wasn't even sure he was still alive. After all, she had been told he needed medical treatment.

Standing up, she realized how hungry she was as she felt the same feeling rush through her head that happened in the middle of the Gangnam Style performance a while back. Pushing that away and towards the back of her mind, she ventured in the direction Puck had gone yesterday, hoping that she'd spot Jake and/or Ryder somewhere. Luckily she ended up almost stumbling over her boyfriend.

He looked up at her and smiled small, but the gesture was awkward and that upset her more than she thought it would. "Hey." He murmured, cringing as she touched the cut on his forehead.

"Sorry." She mumbled, removing her hand from his forehead but allowing it to graze his cheek softly. He shut his eyes as the content he was feeling put him at ease, but that feeling easily vanished as he thought back to the events of yesterday.

"Did they find him?" He asked lowly, frowning when he saw her smile falter. "He was such a douche but he didn't deserve… he _doesn't_ deserve this."

"What happened?" She asked softly, trying not to push too much, but she really wanted to now.

"We went back to Puck's cabin but it was already evacuated so we went back to where you guys were but that was evacuated too. We didn't know what to do. Nobody was there. He told me to go down the slide but we heard screaming so I thought we should check it out, but he pushed me out of the plane and told me to find you." Jake muttered, shaking his head as he bit his lip.

Marley didn't know what to say so she just sat there nodding her head, waiting for the tears to start clouding her vision. And when they didn't show up, she grew worried. Was she not decent enough to cry on behalf of her could-be-dead best friend? The thought made her sick, physically sick and it took all the strength within her, which wasn't much, to keep whatever was in her stomach down.

Jake saw the hurt expression on her face and could only remain silent. If she only knew how he tried to get Ryder to jump, how he screamed at his friend to leave the plane and jump with him. But his efforts were ignored and almost a minute later, the plane was colliding with the water and debris was flying everywhere, a piece of it hitting him in the head. Luckily a boat was nearby but he wanted, no he needed to go back to where the plane was and look for his friend. The guys onboard held him down though, and eventually he ran out of energy to fight against their strength. The next thing he knew, he was stumbling out of the boat and onto the beach.

"I tried…" Jake finally mumbled, licking his lips. Marley's thoughts vanished as she looked down at Jake. He seemed truly hurt by what happened but she couldn't help but think about the fact that now Ryder was out of Jake's way. It was almost convenient in a way. "I really did."

"I know." She whispered, brushing off her hands and standing to her feet. "I'm going to go see if anyone needs help."

"Marley, I-." But Marley shook her head and ignored his pleas.

"No, I know." She assured him, taking a few steps away. As she turned around, she wrapped her arms around herself so Ryder's sweatshirt was pressed against her skin. "Feel better."

Jake looked down at his own body and noticed that he had left his sweatshirt on the plane as well but Marley chose to grab Ryder's. What did that mean? He clung to the hope that maybe Ryder's sweatshirt was just closer, that Jake's was just out of reach and she needed _something _because it was cold. But in reality, Marley was only sitting an aisle's length away from Jake which meant his sweatshirt would have been in reach too.

Maybe it was better that Ryder had turned to help whoever needed it. Maybe now Jake and Marley could fix their relationship.

Jake almost threw up as his thoughts started to focus on the bright side of Ryder's misfortune, but still, he couldn't help but feel a little more at ease. Ryder wouldn't be in the way anymore; in fact, he wasn't even a factor. But Ryder had also risked his life to help Jake find his brother. How could Jake even think about how he'd benefit if his friend had in fact failed to make it out of the plane? He wasn't entirely sure but he couldn't prevent the thoughts from entering his mind.

Marley dragged her feet in the sand as she ventured the forest line. It had been a while since she had seen people and she contemplated turning around but decided against it. They wouldn't even notice she was missing let alone care. Every so often a leaf would crinkle within the forest and she would almost have a heart attack until she realized it was just a rabbit or some other rodent sneaking up on her.

"_You're the one that I want…" _She whispered the tune, bending over and picking up a little yellow flower to hold as she continued her journey. "_Ooh, ooh, ooh. Honey." _

They had sung it together weeks ago, but she could still remember the way he smiled at her during the performance and the way it felt when he held her hand. Why was she wasting her time thinking about him now that he was gone? Why couldn't she have seen what was right in front of her when it _was_ right in front of her? Even Unique noticed, but she had been too stubborn to listen to her friend's advice. _Go out with Ryder. He's the better guy. _That may have been true but Jake was a good guy too.

Besides, what would a guy like Ryder want with a girl like her? They were polar opposites. Ryder was the sweet, confident football player who had every girl pining over him. Marley was just an awkward, shy girl that nobody looked twice at. They didn't belong together.

So what in the world was she doing walking through a forest by herself thinking about him? It just didn't make much sense and she couldn't explain it.

"_You are the one I want. Ooh, ooh, ooh.." _About to finish the chorus, she was interrupted by someone shouting her name. Turning around, hoping it wasn't the grim reaper or something, she huffed when she was trampled by something, or rather someone. "What the hell?"

"What are you _doing?" _Unique asked, standing up from the ground while dusting off her dress and fixing her wig. Now that Marley thought about it, she was amazed the wig had stayed on through all the commotion but still, there it was resting on her best friend's head. "You can't come out here by yourself!"

"I'm still on the beach, Unique." Marley pointed out, motioning her arms towards the open water that was splashing against the beach a couple of yards from where they were standing. "It's not like I'm in _there." _

"Yeah, well let's keep it that way." Unique muttered, crossing her arms for a brief second before softening her expression. "It'll be ok, you know."

"How?! How is this going to be ok?" Marley tested, annoyed with her friend's apparent ignorance. How in the world could anything ever be ok again when she had just lost one of her best friends? "Because if you haven't noticed, people have _died!" _

"We don't know he's dead." Unique decided upon saying after a little bit of thought. Sure, she highly doubted that Ryder was anywhere but the bottom of the ocean right now, but that wasn't what Marley needed to hear. She needed to be fed hope, whether it be false or not, at least until they got off the island. "We'll find him."

With everyone else shoving negative thoughts into her head, this piece of information seemed to stick out to Marley. Unique was 100 percent right. Had anyone seen Ryder _not_ jump out of the plane? Maybe he had jumped when Jake wasn't looking. Maybe he was swimming towards the island as they spoke. Marley whipped her head to stare longingly at the ocean, in hopes that she'd see him way off in the distance. Sadly, he wasn't there but it wasn't like he wouldn't be soon. So she sat down by the trees so they'd give her shade.

"Honey, we should really get back to the rest of the group…" Unique urged warily, unsure of whether feeding Marley false hope was really a good idea or not. Marley rolled her eyes and shook her head, never once turning to look away from the ocean and towards her friend.

"You go. I'll wait here." Marley instructed, biting her lip as she saw something out in the distance. She was disappointed when she realized it was just a floating log of some sort. "I'm going to wait for him."

Unique tried to convince her otherwise, but the brunette was adamant and wouldn't move. As she headed back towards the Puckerman brothers she came up with a plan to get Marley back to the beach. Her friend wouldn't like it, but it was the only way to ensure she was safe and out of harm's way.

"You told her _what?_" Jake asked incredulously, sitting up and leaning against a tree that was conveniently behind him. "And she just stayed there?"

"I didn't know what else to say." Unique made an excuse, trying her best to remember why she had told Marley that Ryder may be alive.

Puck ran his hand over his shaved head, regretting the moment he chose to shave his Mohawk off. At least with his hair he'd be given a tiny distraction from the reality of the situation. "She still there?"

"Yeah. I figure we can just wait until she falls asleep before carrying her back here." Unique offered, frowning when Puck scoffed.

"Fuck that. I'm getting her now." He grumbled, stomping off in the direction Unique had come from ignoring her pleas to get him to stop and turn around.

Jake sighed and ran a hand through his short hair. "She really loved him, didn't she?"

Unique turned to the boy and let out a tiny breath before shaking her head. "She loved you both; still does."

Even though her words were meant to comfort him, the boy found himself even more on edge. Sure, he felt a little bit better hearing that she had truly loved him, but he still felt betrayed, not only by her but by his best friend. Ryder was supposed to be there for him but instead he was apparently making Marley fall in love with him. And he'd forever be pissed off because of it.


End file.
